The soul is eternal and never dies, yet killing the body remains sinful; true knowledge means transcending bodily consciousness.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 2.19–20 — August 25, 1973, London 730825BG-LONDON [27:28 Minutes] Bg-02.19–20_730825BG-LONDON Pradyumna: [leads chanting of verse] [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] ya enaṁ vetti hantāraṁ yaś cainaṁ manyate hatam ubhau tau na vijānīto nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate [Bg. 2.19] [break] na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg. 2.20] [break] [00:58] Translation: "He who thinks that the living entity is the slayer or that he is slain does not understand. One who is in knowledge knows that the self slays not nor is slain." [break] [01:11] Translation: "For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval.
He is not slain when the body is slain." Prabhupāda: So, in different ways, Kṛṣṇa is trying to convince us how the soul is immortal. Different ways. Ya enaṁ vetti hantāram [Bg. 2.19]. When there is fight or..., so if one is killed or...
So Kṛṣṇa says that if one thinks that "This man has killed this man," so, or "This man can kill this man," this kind of knowledge is not perfect. Nobody kills nobody. Then the butchers, they may say that "Then why do you complain that we are killing?" They're killing the body, but you cannot kill when there is injunction, "Thou shall not kill." That means you cannot kill the body even, without sanction. You cannot kill. Although the soul is not killed, the body is killed, still you cannot kill the body without sanction.
That is sinful. For example, that a man is living in some apartment. So some way or other you drive him away from that; illegally, you drive him away. So the man will go out and will take shelter somewhere.
That's a fact. But because you have driven him away from his bona fide position, you are criminal. You cannot say, "Although I have driven away, he'll get some place." No. That's all right, but you have no power to drive him away.
He was in his legal position to live in that apartment, and because you have forcibly driven him away you are criminal, you should be punished. So this argument, the butchers or the animal killers or any kind of killer, they cannot put argument that "Here, Bhagavad-gītā says that soul is never killed," na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg. 2.20], "even after destroying the body. So why you are complaining that we are killing?" So this is the argument, that you cannot even kill the body. That is not allowed. That is sinful.
Ubhau tau na vijānīto nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate. So nobody kills anybody, neither anybody is killed by other. This is one thing. Again, in a different way, Kṛṣṇa says, na jāyate: the living entity never takes birth. The birth is of the body or the death is of the body.